Jimmy Kempski

Posted:
Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 9:09 AM

Two days until the draft. Let's get right to the Eagles notes.

The awful 2009 NFL Draft

Robert Mays of Grantland wrote that the 2009 draft may have been the worst draft ever. Mays' piece focuses on the first 10 picks and the insanely idiotic strategy by the Broncos and Panthers of trading a 1st round pick in the following year's draft for a 2nd round pick in the current one.

Jeremy Maclin is one of only 13 players selected in the first round of that draft who remains with the team that originally selected him.

The Eagles actually did pretty well in the 2009 draft. They got Maclin in the first, and LeSean McCoy in the second round. They also selected three additional players in the later rounds who are still in the league, although they never did much with the Eagles:

• Brandon Gibson, 6th round: 3rd WR for Miami.

• Paul Fanaika, 7th round: Started all 16 games last year for the Cardinals.

Don't ask me about the 2010 and 2011 drafts though. I blacked out on those.

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A bunch of guys flunked their drug test at the Combine

According to Jay Glazer of FOX, a number of players failed their drug tests at the Combine, including some high profile names. The biggest names were LSU QB Zach Mettenberger, LSU DT Anthony Johnson, Florida State DT Timmy Jernigan, Florida State LB Christian Jones, Florida State LB Telvin Smith, and Miami OT Seantrel Henderson.

Philly.com reported back in January that the Eagles had removed Henderson from their board completely, however, Christian Jones and Telvin Smith are players who could be of interest to the Eagles. We wrote about Jones and Smith in detail last month.

The Eagles may need to do some last minute investigating on both players.

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An Eagles fan will be on Jeopardy this week

This is non-football-related, but this week is the Jeopardy Battle of the Decades Tournament. Here's their promo:

As you can see in the promo above, the focus is on Ken Jennings, the guy who rattled off 74 straight Jeopardy wins. Since it's draft season, as an avid Jeopardy fan, I would like to note that if I were to create my big board of Jeopardy players, Ken Jennings would not be my #1 overall pick. That honor would go to the great Brad Rutter, who is currently the all-time leading Jeopardy money winner. People think it's Jennings, but they're wrong.

Rutter: $3,385,702

Jennings: $3,196,300

And not only that, Rutter won his money competing in other Jeopardy champion-level tournaments, while Jennings won his money against people who think Wilt Chamberlain was a professional golfer.

Rutter originally played during the time when you could only win 5 consecutive games before Jeopardy gave you a car and sent you packing. If that rule was not in place, Rutter would be minus a Camaro, but he'd still be on. They'd probably either have to whack him, or change the show's name to "Rutterdy." My guess would be the former. Alex Trebek, like DeSean Jackson, as we all know, is widely rumored to have gang ties.

My Brad Rutter scouting report:

• He was clocked at .003 seconds with the clicker. That is the best thumb speed ever recorded at the Jeopardy Combine.

• He has swag. Note the 0:18 mark in the promo above. "I've never lost to a human." Jeopardy opponents fear swag. Astros centerfielder Dexter Fowler agrees:

Watching @Jeopardy and this guy Brad is that guy! He's killin it! One of the smartest dudes I've seen on this show and he's got SWAG!

• Rutter goes by the more casual "Brad," but if opponents were to google him, they'd see that his full name is Bradford Gates Rutter. There are no homeless Bradfords. That's a fact. That name screams "intimidation" in the quiz show world.

• He's an Eagles fan, and thus if he wins the Battle of the Decades Tournament, perhaps the Eagles will win the Super Bowl this year. No pressure, Brad.